An approach based on linearization that allows us to calculate the timing and amplitude jitter for arbitrary pulse shapes in dispersion-managed fibers is developed. We apply this approach to calculate the jitter for dispersion-managed soliton, return-to-zero (RZ), and nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) transmission formats. We then estimate the bit error rates. The approach described here yields more precise results than Monte Carlo simulations at a fraction of the computational cost